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26
Hereditary Genius
and have reason to believe I could easily obtain a large number of similar
facts.
To conclude, the range of mental power between—I will not say the
highest Caucasian and the lowest savage—but between the greatest and
least of English intellects, is enormous. There is a continuity of natural
ability reaching from one knows not what height, and descending to one can
hardly say what depth. I propose in this chapter to range men according to
their natural abilities, putting them into classes separated by equal degrees
of merit, and to show the relative number of individuals included in the
several classes. Perhaps some persons might be inclined to make an
offhand guess that the number of men included in the several classes would
be pretty equal. If he thinks so, I can assure him he is most egregiously
mistaken.
The method I shall employ for discovering all this, is an application of the
very curious theoretical law of “deviation from an average.” First, I will
explain the law, and then I will show that the production of natural
intellectual gifts comes justly within its scope.
The law is an exceedingly general one. M. Quetelet, the Astronomer-
Royal of Belgium, and the greatest authority on vital and social statistics,
has largely used it in his inquiries. He has also constructed numerical tables,
by which the necessary calculations can be easily made, whenever it is
desired to have recourse to the law. Those who wish to learn more than I
have space to relate, should consult his work, which is a very readable
octavo volume, and deserves to be far better known to statisticians than it
appears to be. Its title is “Letters on Probabilities,” translated by Downes.
Layton and Co. London: 1849.
So much has been published in recent years about statistical deductions,
that I am sure the reader will be prepared to assent freely to the following
hypothetical case:—Suppose a large island inhabited by a single race,
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